Australian F1 Grand Prix: So many questions...

The F1 teams will attempt to balance ambition and caution at the Australian Grand Prix, The Age motor racing writer MICHAEL LYNCH reports.

Australian F1 Grand Prix: So many questions...

30 August 2010Michael Lynch

Can Lewis Hamilton sustain the momentum of a debut season for the ages and go one better to take his first world championship in only his second season in Formula One?

Will the Renault squad, to which he has returned, prove a more comforting environment for former world champion Fernando Alonso, Hamilton's erstwhile teammate at McLaren? And if it is, will Alonso's talent be enough to help the Anglo-French outfit lift itself from the doldrums into which it fell when the Spaniard left for his ill-fated year at McLaren?

Kimi Raikkonen proved he had nerves of steel and an indomitable will to win by hunting down Hamilton and Alonso to take the 2007 title against all the odds in the last race of the season at Sao Paolo. Can the Finn, proud bearer of the No.1 sticker on his Ferrari, prove himself an enduring champion with a second title win in 2008?

Will Felipe Massa, fourth in the standings last year, find the consistency and pace to take the challenge to Raikkonen and perhaps give Ferrari a second championship in succession with two different drivers?

How will Finn Heikki Kovalainen cope with the pressure of being Hamilton's new partner at McLaren? The 26-year-old is, like Hamilton, only in his second season in the top flight, having had an up and down campaign at Renault last year.

He will definitely have the motivation to do well in Melbourne, if only to banish the memory of his error-prone debut at Albert Park last season when Flavio Briatore, the Renault boss, publicly criticised him for a disappointing 10th-place finish.

BMW emerged as the best of the rest last year, with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld consistently running near the front. Can the German operation make the improvement necessary to challenge the front-running Ferrari and McLaren squads?

Or will Williams (which achieved some impressive performances in winter testing), Red Bull Racing (with Australian star Mark Webber in the No.10), Toyota or the disappointing Honda make enough gains to get among the points on a regular basis?

These and a host of other questions are waiting to be partially answered when Melbourne once again hosts the first round of the Formula One World Championship next weekend.

Always eagerly awaited, the Albert Park race invariably provides drama and interest as fresh car, team and driver combinations feel their way into a new campaign with the glare of a global spotlight shining upon them.

While there are myriad questions, there are usually few definitive answers.

Melbourne is one of three so-called "flyaway" races that kick off the new season, with Malaysia and Bahrain following in quick succession on March 23 and April 6, respectively. While teams are anxious to get off to a good start to build a championship-winning campaign, they are also keen to ensure their title ambitions are not destroyed in the first few events before they get back to Europe, where the bulk of the season is staged.

It would not be formula one unless there were a plethora of changes between seasons, both in the driver line-ups and in the rules, with the latter designed to cut the ever-spiralling costs of grand prix racing.

For 2008 (and through to 2010) there will be only one tyre supplier, Bridgestone. All cars will use a standard Electronic Control Unit (ECU). Gearboxes will have to last four grands prix, with a five-place grid penalty handed out to those teams that need to replace their gearboxes early.

Engines will be limited to 19,000rpm, while traction control has been banned (see graphic) along with several other electronic aids, including engine braking.

Alonso and Raikkonen were the standard-bearers for a newer generation in F1 at the turn of the century, and as they have become the established stars, another group of new faces is moving in to try to emulate their success.

Sebastian Vettel replaced American Scott Speed at Toro Rosso for the latter races of 2007, and the German will run his first full season in F1 this year. His teammate will also be a new boy, although a far from inexperienced one. Sebastian Bourdais has won four Champ Car titles in the US, and finally the Frenchman gets his chance in the sport's ultimate category.

Ralf Schumacher has followed elder brother Michael into grand prix retirement, his seat at Toyota going to countryman Timo Glock, a 25-year-old who has run in a handful of grands prix as a substitute driver, but gets his first real opportunity as a full-time pilot this season.

Brazilian Nelson Piquet junior (Nelsinho) is continuing the trend of sons of former top drivers entering the sport. He is the son of triple world champion Nelson Piquet, who won titles for Brabham (1981 and 1983) and Williams (1987). The younger Piquet faces a tough task partnering Renault returnee Alonso in the race team, having spent a season as the squad's test driver in 2007.

Nico Rosberg, of Williams, the son of 1982 world champion Keke, is now in his third season in F1 and is highly regarded. He will be partnered by another son of a former racer in Kazuki Nakajima.

The 23-year-old Japanese driver's father is former GP racer Satoru. The younger Nakajima had a taste of F1 last year, running in the final race of the season for Williams as a replacement for Alex Wurz.

These youngsters have a long way to go to replicate the feats of the most successful of them all. Briton Damon Hill is the only son of a world champion (Graham) to take the title, which he did in a Williams in 1996.

Jacques Villeneuve also won the drivers' crown (in another Williams in 1998), but his father, the much-loved Gilles, never managed to win the championship before he was killed in a race crash in 1982.